Sleeksays

Drew Doughty played 27 minutes tonight. Also: Sean O'Donnell: 0 G, 3 A, +4, 12 PIM Mathieu Schneider: 1 G, 3 A, -11, 14 PIM Also: Kyle Quincey: 11 Games, 2 G, 6 A, Even, 6 PIM Rob Blake: 17 Games, 2 G, 7 A, -2, 24 PIM Well played, Lombardi.

LA Kings (4-6-2) vs. St. Louis Blues (5-6-1) 7:30 PST, Fox Sports Prime Ticket The Kings are currently leading the league in shots allowed per game. That's insane. Last season, if you'll recall, the Kings were atrocious at preventing shots and finished 28th overall with 32 shots/game. This season? 24. In the last game against Florida, the Kings allowed only 15 shots, and at the end of the 2nd the Kings had outshot Florida 25-6. The fuck, man. That's huge both for a team's confidence and for actually winning games. Think about it: even if your team has a fat starter and a small, doe-eyed, Swedish back-up that allow a goal every 10 shots, you're still only allowing 2 or 3 goals a game. I'm kind of used to a more, what's the word, shitty defense, so this has been a nice change of pace so far. Imagine a picture representing shot differential right here Of course, there's a yin to this yang: the Kings are allowing less shots but in doing so they...

The Kings signed defenseman Matt Greeene to a 5-year deal worth about $2.95 million dollars, ensuring that they'll always be able to balance out all their good puck-moving defensemen with a guy that couldn't handle the puck if you taped it to his stick. This is a weird deal. I've liked what I've seen from Matt Greene so far and he could very well be worth this kind of contract, but why give it to him now? Why not wait until the end of the season and see how Greene holds up? Apparently if Patrick O'Sullivan wanted a big deal from the Kings he should have gotten hurt for most of last season. The Kings are hoping Matt Greene will eventually become just like Sean O'Donnell was on the Ducks, a solid defensive defenseman that can skate on a primary shutdown line with Jack Johnson while also chipping in 3+ minutes on the penalty kill. The name thrown around for Greene when he was with the Oiler was Jason Smith and that doesn't seem that unreasonable. Still, ...